


Never Have I Ever Cut Class

by crystalkei



Series: Never Have I Ever Actually Fallen In Love [5]
Category: Never Have I Ever (TV)
Genre: Canon Compliant, F/M, Post-Canon, ex boyfriend vs new boyfriend and things get heated!
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-05
Updated: 2020-06-05
Packaged: 2021-03-03 19:01:07
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,831
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24560467
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/crystalkei/pseuds/crystalkei
Summary: It's the first day back at school after Paxton and Devi made it official and not everyone is thrilled to see this new relationship.
Relationships: Paxton Hall-Yoshida/Devi Vishwakumar
Series: Never Have I Ever Actually Fallen In Love [5]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1761826
Comments: 28
Kudos: 106





	Never Have I Ever Cut Class

**Author's Note:**

> I know there's a lot of multishipping in this fandom (which is great!) but I felt like I should warn you that Ben Gross flies off the handle in this one and if you're not interested in that, this is a good time to read something else. <3

It’s me, John McEnroe, back again and ready to party! Or go to school with Devi on her first day post making things official with Paxton Hall-Yoshida. That’s kind of a party. Not my usual kind but alas, here we are.

Now I missed the big reveal that Paxton had been pining for Devi for months but you know, it makes perfect sense and I’m happy to see those two kids working this stuff out. They’ve grown! Kind of like how I grew by throwing less rackets at line umpires as I’ve gotten older. 

Prom was on Saturday night and now it was Monday morning and Devi was walking to school, coming through the parking lot when Paxton caught up with her. He took her hand immediately and Devi couldn’t believe this was real. They were about to walk into the building hand in hand, announcing to everyone, they were dating. Paxton was her boyfriend. Like for real. Officially. He’d _pined_ for her! 

“How was your family dinner thing last night?” he asked, like they hadn’t texted basically all of yesterday. 

“It was fine. My mom thinks Prashant should tell his parents that he and Kamala are dating but Prashant and Kamala both think my mom is nuts and that it will cause a huge fight.”

McEnroe: That has no application in the two of these teenagers’ lives. Definitely nothing they could learn about the situation they’re in themselves. Nope. 

As they entered the building, people started to stare. Paxton waved at Trent and some choir kids in a gaggle by the stairs started whispering but they were smiling, like they were cheering Devi on. Paxton was holding her hand. They were walking to class together, and he was asking about her family stuff. Because he cared what was going on. This was basically a ticker tape parade as far as she was concerned. 

“But did you beat Prashant at Mario Kart? I know you can beat Kamala and at a later date we’ll see if you can beat me, but-” 

“I’ll beat your ass at Mario Kart too, even on Rainbow Road!” Devi stopped in the hallway outside the classroom door and Paxton stopped too.   
  
He let go of her hand and pulled the belt loops of her jeans so she was up against him. Right there in the school hallway. Where everybody could see. 

“Guess we’ll see.” He leaned in and kissed her, just a quick kiss, and then looked over at the classroom. “Shall we?”

“Class doesn’t start for another two minutes,” she said.  
  
“Not gonna have your good name slandered like ‘she’s dating Paxton now so she’s late to class.’ Not my girlfriend. Not on my watch.” He took her hand and pulled her into the classroom. 

“Who’s the nerd now,” she said, as he sat down in front of her. But that was just her cool facade because inside she was screaming. Absolutely nothing could bring down her mood. 

McEnroe: She shoulda knocked on wood with that thought. 

Eleanor, Fabiola, Eve, and Trent all walked into the classroom and past an already seated Ben Gross. Devi would not be paying any attention to Ben but she noticed Paxton gave him a nod when they walked in. 

Trent shouted across the room to Eleanor, “Did you see the TikTok I sent you? It’s the prom production of Buffy but with Britney Spears Toxic as the sound.” 

“No!” Eleanor scrambled to open her phone but Mr. Shapiro walked in just as she did. 

“Good morning! I heard prom was an event to remember,” he said, and the whole class started at once with their descriptions of the absurd event they’d all heard or seen. 

Paxton just looked back at Devi and winked. She smiled. 

“Since we’ve finished exams and there’s still two weeks of school left, I’ve come up with a wild lesson plan today. Be prepared to be shook.” 

Groans erupted but he kept going.   
  
“We’re going to clean up the classroom and as a highlight, I’ve got three shelves that need to be built and I was thinking we could have a competition to see who could put them together the fastest.”

“Isn’t that child labor?” Devi asked. 

“No, it’s a fun lesson!” Mr. Shapiro tried. 

“What kinda shelf is it?” Paxton asked, spinning his pencil around his fingers. 

“I need three Ikea shelves built. I watched a YouTube video and I think it could be a lively competition.”   
  
“Sick, I can build one of those in like 15 minutes flat.” Paxton sat up, interested. “Give me a mallet and an allen wrench and I’ll be done with all three of them before class is over.” 

“He can’t be serious,” Ben said, under his breath. 

Paxton side eyed him. 

Devi ignored Ben in favor of being impressed at Paxton’s eagerness to build the shelves. He was so sure and confident in his abilities and it was very hot. 

“Can’t we just watch a movie?” Eleanor suggested. 

“Don’t worry, there’s still two more weeks of school, I’ve got a ton of documentaries lined up so we can all Netflix and chill the rest of the school year.” 

“That’s not what that means, Mr. Shapiro,” Trent said, shaking his head. 

“I’ve got three shelves, Paxton’s gonna build one, who else is gonna build one? We’ll keep time, person who wins gets to leave class 10 minutes early.”  
  
“Can you even do that? Is that allowed?” Ben whined. 

“Ben, are you volunteering to build the second shelf?” Mr. Shapiro asked.   
  
“No.” 

“I can really build all three of them like right now,” Paxton tried again. “I’ve built like eight of these shelves. They’re not hard. I don’t even need the instructions.”   
  
“Because you can’t read,” Ben muttered and Devi almost jumped out of her chair.   
  
Paxton put his hand on her desk and shook his head. “I got it.” 

Devi pressed her lips tightly together and folded her arms across her chest. 

McEnroe: For the record, Ikea instructions don’t have words, instead they’re picture instructions, so that instructions in each language don’t need to be printed for each country. Ikea’s being a responsible corporation and they really aim to keep paper waste down. Isn’t that great?

“I”ll build one,” Fabiola offered. 

“Great,” Mr. Shapiro dragged out the boxes, setting them out in the front of the classroom. “Paxton, Fabiola, and Ben. Let’s get ready, hm?”

“I don’t want to do that!” Ben refused to stand up.   
  
Paxton stood up though, and leaned over to Ben. “It’s fine, I’ll build them both.” 

Ben jumped out of his chair then and walked up to stand in front of one of the boxes with the shelf pieces. “Fine.” 

McEnroe: Devi was still fuming in her chair but couldn’t help the little thrill she got watching Paxton bait Ben.   
  
“I’ll keep time,” Devi offered, sitting up in her chair and leaning on the desk, pulling her phone out.

“She can’t keep time, Mr. Shapiro.” Ben argued. “Our breakup was very nasty and she can’t be trusted to be an impartial judge.”   
  
Both Devi and Paxton rolled their eyes at Ben. Mr. Shapiro had already pulled his own phone out though and declined Devi’s offer.   
  
“Alright, ready, set, go!” 

In a frenzy of ripping cardboard, Fabiola, Paxton, and Ben started building their shelves. Eve started cheering first, shouting at Fab to help her organize the screws from the box. Trent and Devi watched Paxton methodically pull the screws out and lay them on the floor next to the shelf.   
  
“Look at him go, he’s a machine,” Trent shouted, putting his fist in the air.   
  
Poor Ben Gross had no cheering section and was very behind everyone else. He couldn’t find the bag of screws and his shelf pieces kept falling down as he was trying to catalog them. Soon enough though, he had the frame of the shelf standing. It didn’t matter, Paxton was frantically using the allen wrench to twist in the last screws on his shelf. 

Devi had been shouting encouragement the whole time. Not only was she impressed, it felt like peak girlfriend behavior and she was planning on being the best girlfriend ever. “You’re so close! You got this!” 

Mr. Shapiro called out the time, “Fourteen minutes, I think Paxton bragged he could do it in 15? Fabiola’s shelf is looking almost complete? Ben, you’re doing great, buddy, really keeping up!” 

The entire classroom was either shouting about the race or filming the race. Trent was doing both. 

Ben stood up, threw his hands in the air, and shouted, “Finished!” Just as Fabiola and Paxton were spinning the allen wrenches on the last screws. 

Ben’s shelf leaned heavily to one side and was missing an entire shelf in the middle. Paxton kept working and tossed his allen wrench when he was done. Fab had three more screws to tighten, so she continued but the class was focused on Ben’s disaster of a shelf. 

Mr. Shapiro looked at Ben’s shelf and scrunched up his face. “Ben, as always, you put forth a great effort, but in this case, your shelf isn’t complete and I think Paxton wins.”

Ben pursed his lips and glared. Devi jumped up from her seat and high fived Paxton. Everyone else in the class moved towards he and Fabiola, ignoring Ben’s shelf. They were cheering and high fiving. 

Mr. Shapiro tried to get everyone to calm down. “Paxton and Fabiola had similar times and their shelves both look catalog ready. But Paxton, are you sure your shelf is good? It looks just a little crooked.”

“Trent, put your phone on it, get that level app out.” Paxton knocked on the top of the shelf. 

Sure enough, Trent’s level app showed a perfectly level surface. Mr. Shapiro took Paxton’s hand and raised it in the air. “Paxton’s shelf wins!”

Everyone cheered and Paxton turned to Devi and kissed her. It surprised her but they were dating! He was excited for his win and his way of expressing it was to kiss her! She kissed him back but pulled away when the class started to clap. They were still in school, after all. 

“Me. Shapiro, can you tell Devi to keep her slutty behavior to a minimum…”

Whatever else Ben was about to say was drowned out by the ringing in Devi’s ears. She lunged for Ben but someone stopped her. It wasn’t Paxton though because he too lunged for Ben, but he too was held back. 

The whole class erupted in claps and shouts again. Mr. Shapiro had to put himself between Ben and Devi and Paxton. Eleanor and Fab held Devi back and Trent held Paxton. And Ben Gross was cowering behind Mr. Shapiro. 

“That wasn’t very cash money of you, Ben,” Mr. Shapiro explained. “The three of you, outside, right now, everyone else stay here and calm down.”

Paxton and Devi followed Mr. Shapiro out of the classroom, both fuming. Ben leaned against a locker on the opposite side of the hall. He didn’t seem perturbed at all and it made Devi’s hands twitch. 

“Swim team is done for the year, the only thing stopping me from breaking you in half is Mr. Shapiro.” 

“I honor your feelings, but violence is not the way,” Mr. Shapiro lifted his arms, and motioning for Paxton to step back. 

“How can I be both an unfuckable nerd and a slut?” Devi shouted. 

“Wait, is that what UN stands for?” Paxton looked at Devi horrified. “I just thought it was racist.” 

“You two need to step back,” Mr. Shapiro tried, again standing between them and Ben. “I understand there’s some teen tea to be spilt right now and I know you probably have receipts, but let’s have this stop right here. I won’t send the three of you to the principal’s office-” 

“What did we even do wrong? He’s the asshole slut shaming me!” Devi could feel her face heat and she wanted to tear down every bookshelf that was just built.   
  
Paxton gestured to Devi. “Yeah, what she said!” 

“You don’t even know what slut shaming is.” Ben rolled his eyes from the comfort of being safely ensconced behind Mr. Shapiro. 

“Fuck off with that,” Paxton lowered his voice now and it was more intimidating than his yelling. “I know what it means and I know you’re a jerk for mocking her for not being fuckable and then being mad when she is deemed fuckable. Like she’s not a _person_ or something.” 

McEnroe: Ben, Mr. Shapiro, and even Devi paused, impressed with Paxton’s assessment. He failed one class, kids, he’s not a total idiot! 

“Paxton, Devi, go back to class. I’m gonna talk to Ben out here.” 

Devi turned to go back to class, Paxton followed until they got to the door. He looked over his shoulder to see that Mr. Shapiro had taken Ben down the hall further so he stopped Devi from going in with a hand on the door over her. 

“If you want me to take you home, I can.”  
  
Devi turned around and looked up at him. “It’s first period.” 

“Yeah, it’s called skipping class. It’s not like teachers have anything other than filler stuff today,” he added. “I’m just saying, it’s been a brutal day already and it’s not even 9AM.” 

“I can’t go home. My mom is at home sick.” Devi shrugged, but then stiffened. “Wait, are you embarrassed of me?”

“What?” His brows knit together and he frowned. “No, not at all! Just wanted to offer you an out instead of having the entire day dominated by what just happened. People are gonna talk about it, they might not say it to you but they’ll be saying it so why not just get out for the day. You can’t go home, fine, we’ll go to my house and play Mario Kart and hang out.” 

“You don’t think people are gonna think we just went to your house to have sex and then keep calling me a slut?” 

“I didn’t-” Paxton stopped and tilted his head to the side. “I didn’t consider that but no I don’t think people will say that. I think it looks like we’re skipping class because Ben Gross was a jackass in first period.” 

Just then, Fabiola and Eleanor opened the door, causing Paxton to almost fall into Devi since he’d been leaning against the door, but he recovered. 

“Are you okay?” Eleanor asked, Fabiola stood next to her, huddled, to give them some privacy from the rest of the class. 

“Yeah. I’m fine.” 

“I’m trying to convince her to skip so she doesn’t have to spend the whole day caught up in this,” Paxton explained. 

“That sounds like a really good idea,” Fabiola said. “You know people are gonna talk about this all day, and they’ll all be Team Devi. For real. You were not in the wrong on this. So if you go home, at least you don’t have to talk to everybody about it.” 

“Really?” Devi could not believe her friends were agreeing. She’d never cut class! They’d never cut class! 

“That’s a really good idea, Paxton. You guys should bail. We’ll handle any backlash,” Eleanor offered. 

Devi took one last look at her friends’ supportive faces and agreed. “Okay, let’s go. I’ll text you guys later.” 

Fab and Eleanor turned around and shouted for Trent who slid over two desks and met them at the door, smoothly handing off Paxton and Devi’s backpacks. “Peace out, lovebirds.” 

Once they made it to Paxton’s house, he didn’t take her to the garage. Besides Rebecca’s bedroom and the bathroom, she had only seen Paxton’s garage. It was weird, seeing the rest of his house. 

“Sit down, you want something to drink? A soda? Water?” He was digging in the fridge. “Did you have breakfast? I’m gonna make some toast.” 

“Uh, no, I don’t need any toast, but thanks. Maybe some water?” She sat on the sectional in front of the kitchen bar and took stock of the room. 

Lots of family photos on the wall: Paxton as a kid, Rebecca as a kid, a family shot, then an extended family shot with grandparents. There was a vase with fresh flowers on a side table and a desk on the other side of the room with messy papers piled up. 

Paxton met her on the couch and handed her a bottle of water. He sat down next to her on the chaise of the couch, after he put his toast on the end table. “You wanna watch HGTV?”

“I thought we were gonna play Mario Kart? If we’re looking for ways to improve my mood, beating you while tossing red shells is pretty high on the list.” Devi reached over Paxton and picked up a piece of his toast.   
  
“I offered to make you toast,” he said, giving her a half smile. 

“You know how toast is though, right? When you see toast, you always want toast,” Devi said, snuggling into his side.   
  
McEnroe: Well that is true. Damn. I want to make myself some toast right now, slathered in butter, maybe a little honey. A nice apple butter on the toast is good, or a homemade jam? Wait, what’s happening with Devi and Paxton? Oh, they’re kissing now. That’s not really surprising. They seem to do that a lot. 

So Devi and Paxton ate toast, made out, and played Mario Kart. They ended up falling asleep on the sectional which was fine. Nobody in Paxton’s house was going to be home until long after school got out so there was no issue. Except when Devi was abruptly awakened from her nap by her phone ringing. With one eye open, she reached for her phone, and saw Kamala’s face on the screen. 

“Make the ringing stop,” Paxton’s voice was groggy and he nudged the back of her knee with his, snuggling closer into her back.

“Hello?” 

“Devi! Did you skip school?! The school called your mother and she knows you’re not at school! Where are you?” Kamala’s shouting caused Devi to hold the phone further away from her ear. 

Paxton sat up straight. “Shit.” 

“I’m coming home right now, what is Mom saying?”

“She’s at work,” Kamala explained. 

“I thought she was still home sick?” Devi asked, standing up and reaching for her shoes.   
  
“After you left for school she got up and went to work because she felt better. I covered for you but you need to get home. Right. Now.” 

Paxton grabbed his keys from the kitchen island and grabbed Devi’s backpack before putting his own shoes on. They ran for the Jeep. 

“This is so bad,” Devi said, as they pulled up to her house. “How did we fall asleep? How did I end up in this situation, my mom _hates_ you!”

“I heard Kamala on the phone, she said she covered for you, this is gonna be fine,” Paxton tried, but he didn’t know if he believed it. 

Devi’s heart hadn’t slowed down since Kamala had started yelling and she shook her legs the whole way home. “I’m just gonna go like, dude, don’t even slow down, if my mom sees you on this block she’s gonna be suspect.”   
  
“You’re not jumping out of a moving car, Devi.” 

“I might!” She looked at him, eyes wide, panicked. 

“I’m sorry, I fucked this up.”   
  
“It’s fine, I’ll figure it out.” 

Devi jumped out of the Jeep (after Paxton had put it into park) and ran into the house. Kamala met her at the door. “Go upstairs, here, take this heating pad. I told your mom you had your period and you had cramps so bad you cried so they sent you home.”   
  
“She bought that?” Devi asked, surprised. 

Never had her mother ever given her leeway on her period cramps. Always it was “suck it up, Devi, that’s mother nature’s reminder that you’ve survived another month.” 

Devi went up the steps two at a time, pulling off her sweater and mussing up her hair as she went. She climbed into bed, rolled over, and leaned off her bed to plug in the heating pad before she heard her mom come barreling into the house. But before her mom made it up the stairs, the door opened and Paxton slipped into her room. 

“What are you doing? My mom is literally coming up the stairs!” she whispered harshly. 

He tossed her bag next to her bed. “You forgot this in the Jeep.” 

The door opened and Devi’s mom got an eye full of Paxton leaning towards Devi’s bed, whispering. 

“Excuse me, what is going on in here?” Nalini shouted. 

McEnroe: Oh shit. 

Paxton startled and turned to Nalini. He smiled, nervously, but picked up the backpack. 

“I just brought Devi her backpack. When she threw up this morning in class she left in a hurry and forgot her bag, but I waited until school was over and brought it to her.” 

“In her room? Wait, threw up? I thought you had period pains?”

“My sister totally pukes from that sometimes,” he lied. “Being a girl sounds pretty rough.” 

“Well get out of here, no boys in Devi’s room!” Nalini seemed to have bought the lies and Devi was shocked. “Up here with your shoes on the carpet,” she muttered under her breath.

Except no, Paxton didn’t have his shoes on, Devi noticed. “Nope, Dr. Vishwakumar. I would never wear shoes on carpet.” 

McEnroe: I think he’s overselling it a little but Nalini seems to be really buying it. Maybe they won’t have to keep this relationship from her mom forever. 

That night, Devi texted Paxton.  
  


Devi:   
Omg that was so close but you really killed it with my mom

Paxton:  
I think I just aged 10 years in 15 minutes. 

Devi:  
Thanks for skipping class with me today.

Paxton:   
Sorry Ben Gross was shitty this morning. I probably shouldn't have pushed him. 

Devi:  
He texted me to apologize so whatever. That’s over. I don’t want to think about it anymore.

Paxton:  
Ben Gross texted you?

Devi:  
Holy shit are you jealous? This is so cute! I love this. Omg this is maybe better than beating you at Mario Kart AND stealing your toast. 

Paxton:  
I’m not jealous. It’s fine. It’s your ex texting you, that’s fine. I don’t care about it even a little.

Devi:  
Well my new boyfriend lied to my mom, almost beat up my ex boyfriend, and gave a very succinct definition of slut shaming, all after building an ikea shelf in minutes. I think I’ll keep the new boyfriend. Is that cool with you?

Paxton:  
Damn, your new boyfriend sounds awesome   
  
Devi:   
He’s hot too.   
  
McEnroe: Paxton responded with the gif of the white guy blinking, you know the one. And then some laughing emojis. Then three blowing a kiss emojis and Devi held her phone to her chest and looked at the ceiling, giddy. She was doing pretty okay. 

  
  


  
  


**Author's Note:**

> Again, I'm heading into my last couple of ideas in this series so if have any prompts, let me know here or on tumblr and I'll see what I can do.


End file.
